


Trickster's Gambit

by conceptstage



Series: Multi-Chapter Critical Role [6]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Forbidden Love, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:48:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21761713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conceptstage/pseuds/conceptstage
Summary: Beau was out of a home, out of a job, out of luck. She made her way to the sea, determined to see it at least once in her life, but her idyllic ocean adventure got derailed by a man in a green cloak and a tiefling with sapphire eyes. But people like her don't really get happily-ever-afters, do they?
Relationships: Jester Lavorre/Beauregard Lionett
Series: Multi-Chapter Critical Role [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1436665
Comments: 1
Kudos: 64





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'll update the tags as I go.

Coming to Nicodranous may have been the best decision she’d ever made. Second best, perhaps. Spending the last of her money on this meat pie filled with bits of bacon was currently making a very convincing argument to be number one.

Beau leaned back against the metal railing as she ate, pausing to suck some of the sauce off her thumb before it could roll down her arm, shivering slightly when a cold breeze wafted off the sea behind her and sent a chill up her bare arms. She looked back at the ocean as a wave crashed against the stone behind her and just watched the moon ripple in the reflection on the crystal blue water. She’d never seen the ocean until this morning and now she wasn’t sure she could ever go a day without being able to look at it. She spent a moment, as she finished the first bit of warm, cooked food that she’d had in almost three days, daydreaming about a little house on the oceanfront, waking up to do her morning exercises on the warm sand, a beautiful woman standing with her feet in the water and a silk nightgown whipping around her from the breeze and looking at Beau with so much love that-

Something smacked Beau hard in the chest. Normally she was more alert than this, more agile, more careful, but she had been distracted by the warm food in her stomach, the calming hum of the waves beating up against the stone wall, and the thoughts about what exactly she wanted that fantasy lady to do to fantasy Beau later tonight to see it coming. She nearly fell backwards over the railing but grabbed the metal tightly to keep herself on her feet. She looked down at her chest where she’d been hit and found an unripe tomato, wet and mushy and running down the front of her Cobalt robes.

She looked around quickly and only saw three other people in her vicinity. A young couple (a half orc and a half elf walking arm in arm, too wrapped up in one another to see what was going on with her a few away) and an older human woman with arms full of grocery bags who looked just as shocked as Beau felt. The older woman turned away from Beau and looked down a nearby alleyway. “How rude, young man!” she shouted at someone Beau couldn’t see. 

Beau took off down the alley, pausing at the end just in time to see a green cloak disappear around the right corner. “Hey!”

Beau dashed down the alleyway, confident that she could catch him. She was the fastest initiate in training, it was basically impossible to escape her on foot. She flew around the corner and screeched to a stop.

The tomato thrower was standing right around the corner, waiting for her, and she stumbled and nearly fell or crashed into him but managed to catch herself in time.

He was tall, taller than the average human, maybe an elf then. She couldn’t make out any features except for a few stands of red hair that fell out from his hood but his entire face was in shadow. The light from the street lamps glinted against his teeth as he grinned and reached out, wearing a purple cloth glove that covered his arm up to his elbow. In her shock and confusion Beau could only stand there, still as the dead, when he ‘boop’ed her on the nose.

Sneering, she reached up to smack his hand away but all she met was thin air. She hadn’t even blinked but he was gone, faded into the ether or swept away in the night air. “What the fuck?!” she exclaimed.

Beau blinked and looked around quickly. She’d come out the other end of the alley on a dim lit cobbled street, shadowed slightly from the tall, five story building at the end of the road that blocked out the moon from view. It was empty except for some quiet murmuring from inside the houses that lined the sides and the clatter of plates as the families inside sat down around their tables for dinner.

Beau refused to let down her guard, keeping her shoulders tense and her eyes flitting around for danger as she stepped quietly down the route. She looked down the alleyways but there was no sign of the prankster who had attacked her. 

She jumped at the sudden sound of laughter and followed the sound up to a window on the top floor of the tall building she’d found herself in front of. She thought at first that the laughter had been directed at her but then quickly realized that it was unrelated to what had just happened. She looked up at the open window and could see flickering fire light from inside. Just before she was about to look away and continue her search for the man in the green cloak, a shape passed in front of the window and she felt her heart stop. A young woman, probably slightly younger than she was, came to stand at the glass and looked out at the sea over the roofs across the street. She didn’t seem to notice Beau in the dark street below and Beau didn’t mean to stare but she was suddenly certain that she’d just caught sight of the most beautiful woman in the world.

She was a blue skinned tiefling with cropped blue hair that was pinned up in curls and dark horns that curled around her pointed ears. She was in a peach nightgown with lace and frills and there seemed to be dried paint dotted up her muscular arms. She was smiling and Beau could tell that she was speaking to someone else in the room but her words were just a low hum that she couldn’t make out.

Beau hadn’t meant to stare and suddenly felt creepy. She was about to turn and leave, give up on finding the man in the green cloak and focus instead on finding a safe place to sleep, but the blue girl moved away from the window and was quickly replaced by a man in a green cloak.

Beau’s eyes widened and the man looked down at her and waved briefly before pulling the window closed. “That motherfucker!” she hissed. She looked around quickly for an entrance to the building and saw some light around the corner, which she followed, still grumbling quietly to herself.

She street that she stepped out to was busier than than the other areas she’d been in the city. A dozen people of varying races and ages were strolling down the street, pausing to glance inside the open door of the building at her side but ultimately continuing on their way. A cart rumbled by and the diver, a middle aged gnome woman, nodded at her in a tired, half-hearted greeting. She couldn’t see the ocean from this street but she could hear the screeching of birds and the slow roll of the tide so she couldn’t have wandered too far from it.

There was light and music drifting out of the open doorway and as she moved closer she saw a tall minotaur standing beside it, a bouncer probably. As she walked forward, she suddenly heard a sultry voice start to drift out of the door, flowing like honey over the cobbles and into the street. A young man that had been walking by froze and looked inside the door, transfixed on the sound, until another man bumped into him from behind and shoved him forward.

“Don’t stop in the road, child,” the other man said in a deep, rumbling voice. “Have you never heard the Ruby sing before?” He huffed. “Tourists.”

Beau frowned. The Ruby? Who was the Ruby? She started towards the front door, and couldn’t even get a glance inside before the Minatuar’s large, furry hand clamped down on her shoulder.

He breathed heavily out through his nose. “2 silver cover,” he said gruffly. 

Beau only had a single copper, not even two of them to rub together. “Yeah, I’m not here for the show, man,” she said, picking up his hand by a single finger and removing it from her person. 

He looked her up and down and frowned. “I highly doubt that you are here to stay the night.”

“Rude,” she said, but she didn’t argue with his assessment. “There’s a man here that I’m looking for.” She gestured to the tomato that was swiftly drying on her clothes. “I was down the street and he threw this at me and I followed him here. He’s inside, I saw him in one of the upstairs windows.I just want to talk to him, promise.” She did not want to just talk to him but she doubted that ‘I just want to beat his ass to a bloody pulp’ would manage to get her in the door. “I’ll be in and out in five minutes.”

The minotaur seemed to believe her but didn’t relax. “What did he look like?”

“Tall guy, green cloak, that’s all I saw.”

“No one like that here,” he grunted. “Get lost.”

Beau sneered. “Hey! I know he’s here, I fucking saw him in that fucking window!” she pointed to the side of the building.

“There’s only one entrance and no one in a green cloak has passed me.” He grabbed her by her shirt and tossed her back. She nearly crashed down onto the street but caught herself and managed to remain on her feet.

“Hey!”

“Go away before I call the Zolezzo.”

Beau growled under her breath but looked around to find everyone in the street staring right at her, including a man in crownsguard armor who had a hand on his sword. Beau rolled her eyes and shoved her hands into her pockets. “Fine! For fuck’s sake, someone assaults me and I get hassled by guards? Typical.” The minotaur took a step towards her and she shrugged and turned to walk away. “Yeah, yeah, I’m going.” She started back the way she’d come, around the side of the building to the dark, empty street. She looked up at the window where she’d seen the man in the green cloak and the room was dark.

Beau sighed and turned away, sneering down at her dirty shirt and wondering if she’d be able to wash it off in the ocean tonight without getting hassled.

When she slept that night, laying down in the sand with her back against the stone wall and her rucksack held tightly in her arms, the woman in her dream, standing in a nightgown with her feet in the water, had blue skin and dark horns.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, had to delete and re upload this chapter to fix a mistake I just noticed.

Beau woke up to a mouthful of salt water.

She sputtered and sat up, coughing into her elbow. She wiped away the watering in her eyes and looked around quickly. The tide was rising quickly and she pushed herself up to her feet, blinking into the morning sun rise. As her vision cleared completely, she took a moment to stand and stare at the pink purple sky and the myriad of colors that it painted on the sea. The water came back up to lick at her ankles and shook her from her reverie. She hurried over to the stairs before the tide could get any higher and shook the water out of her bag. She ran her fingers through her wet hair and pulled it up into her typical top knot.

An old man in rags walked by, huffing on a pipe held tight between his teeth, and chuckled at her, taking the pipe out briefly to blow out the smoke. “You’ll learn to wake before the tide soon enough, young lady,” he said, his voice croaking like it’d been well used over his lifetime.

She thought about replying but he was surprisingly fast for an old man and wandered away before she could find her voice through the morning stuffiness in her throat. Her stomach suddenly made a noise that was quickly becoming familiar to her. Hunger. One warm meat pie apparently wasn’t enough to make up for days of eating a few pieces of dried jerky and nothing else. The one copper that she had would be enough for a handful of eggs but she’d have to cook them herself and she wasn’t equipped for that right now. Maybe she could find some fruit though it wouldn’t be filling. She half wished that she’d had the presence of mind to take what was left of the tomato that had been smeared against her shirt, half a smashed tomato was better than nothing.

She needed work, she needed a job, even if it was just for the day.

The docks seemed like the best bet so she started in that direction.She managed to find someone looking for help unloading his ship and got a cold sandwich and three silver out of it. She bought another meat pie as the sun went down. It got dark quickly and by the time she reached the stairs that lead down to the sleeping area in the sand that she had found for herself, the tide long gone, the only light was from the moons and stars in the sky and the occasional street lamps that flickered to life magically when darkness fell completely. Just as she finished off her dinner, there was movement in her peripherals.

She was prepared this time, whipping up her hand and catching the tomato in the air. It was extremely mushy so it still fell to pieces in her fist but at least it wasn’t on her clothes this time. She whipped around and spotting the man in the green cloak, standing under a street lamp. He laughed out loud and it was almost inhuman, like music. He wiggled his fingers in a playful wave and when he spoke, she heard him clearly. “My, my, maybe you are worth the trouble, my dear. Come along, then, shall we begin the chase?” He turned sharply and disappeared into the shadow of the buildings. Beau dropped the tomato and took off where she’d seen him last.

“Get back here, motherfucker!”

“Oh, the young Mistress has a potty mouth. Learn that from your daddy, did you?” His voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere as she ran down the dark alleyway, bursting out the end in a road she’d never seen before.

She snarled. “Who the fuck are you?” She was sure now that this wasn’t just some random prankster. He knew things, things no one in this part of the world should be privy to. 

He was nowhere to be seen in the street but she heard his laughter come from another alleyway down the way. As angry as she was, she approached it cautiously, her shoulders tense for a fight. She turned the corner with her fists up and ready in front of her but it was empty. His laughter still echoed off the stone walls but there didn’t seem to be a source.

She moved forward slowly, blocking out the incessant chuckling as best she could and calming her furiously beating heart. 

“This way,” whispered a voice from behind her.

She spun around and punched but there was nothing there.

“Come out and fight!” she hissed. “Or are you scared?”

“Scared of a mortal?” The laughter stopped and the voice came from behind her. She spun and saw his lithe, dark figure standing at the end of the alley. “How insulting.” He vanished like before, like a wisp in the wind and she moved carefully towards where he’d been. She stepped out into the street and found herself back where she had been the night before. The same empty street, hidden from the light of the moon. 

She instantly looked up at the window from last night and there was light from a flickering candle but the girl was nowhere to be seen right now. She blinked and the man in the green cloak appeared in her line of sight, standing in a relaxed stance on the balcony next the window, smirking at her and leaning against the railing. 

“Let’s try this again. You can climb, can’t you,  _ Misio  _ ?”

Her nursemaid called her Misio. No one knew that except Eugenia. Beau narrowed her eyes. She wasn’t angry anymore, she was calculated, cautious. This was clearly something more than just a magical prankster who had it out for her. This person knew things that he shouldn’t.

She spent a moment looking at the wall of the building, figuring out the best way to climb it, and when she glanced back at the balcony he was gone again. This time there was no laughter, no taunts, just unsettling silence. It seemed like even the birds and the ocean had frozen still.

She took a deep breath and shook out her shoulders as she marched towards the building. She paused for a moment to look for wandering eyes but it seemed like the entire street had been cleared out for whatever the fuck this was. She climbed it easily, finding hand holds and foot perches was no issue, the hard part was keeping quiet. Some of the bricks were loose and shifted when she put her weight on them. Each time one wobbled under her hand she paused to ensure that no one had heard. She pulled herself up silently onto the balcony, at last and looked for signs of where the man/being/entity had planned for her but the second she started her investigation, she started hearing movement from the other side of the door. She hopped on instantly and grabbed the edge of the roof, pulling herself up on top of it. The moment that she had found her balance, the doors opened beneath her and someone stepped out. They paused to shut the doors once more and then stepped into Beau’s sight.

It was the tiefling from last night, wearing a different nightgown, sage green this time, but her hair was still pinned up in curls. She pulled a fur shawl tightly over her shoulders but she didn’t seem that cold. She laughed suddenly like tinkling bells.

“You were right, Traveler,” she said, looking over the neighboring roofs to the ocean a few streets over. “You can see the boats from here! Where do you think they’re going?” She paused when there wasn’t an answer and started looking around her. “Traveler?”

Beau tilted her head curiously. Traveler? Could that be the man in the green cloak. Were they working together?

There was a sigh behind her and she tensed up, ready to defend herself. “You are certainly making this matchmaking thing overly difficult.” A hand pressed against her back and pushed her forward with surprising strength. She tumbled forward, unable to catch her balance, and fell down towards the balcony. She expected to hit stone, or maybe she’d land directly on the metal railing and break her back, but something caught her.

Or rather, she realized when she opened her eyes and see shining blue eyes staring back at her, some _ one  _ had caught her. The woman looked just as surprised to have Beau in her arms as Beau felt to be there. She continued staring for a moment, blinking in shock, before she suddenly screamed and threw Beau over the side of the railing.

Beau scrambled to catch herself on the metal rods and they dug into her palm as she swung below the balcony. The woman screamed again and Beau felt a foot digging into fingers, trying to push her off.

“Wait!” Beau screamed, reaching up with her other hand to grab another rod as the woman pressed harder with her bare foot. “Wait, wait, I’m here for the guy! The guy in the green cloak!”

The screaming stopped instantly but the foot didn’t move. It also didn’t push anymore, for which she was relieved. It just rested against her fingers like a threat. The woman shifted until she could peer down at Beau, her head tilted curiously to the side. “Green cloak? You know about the Traveler?”

“You could say that. Can I-” She grunted when she nearly lost her grip. “Can I come up please?”

“Wait. What’s your name?”

“What? Why do you want my name?”

“So I can know if you’re lying.”

“How the fuck does knowing my name mean you can tell if I’m a liar?”

“If you say a boring common name that means you’re making it up.”

“I’m not sure that tracks. Common names are common for a reason, it’s because people have them in real life.” The foot started to press against her fingers again and Beau screamed her name at the top of her lungs. “Beauregard! My name is Beauregard!”

“Oh!” she said like she was surprised or maybe impressed. “That’s such a pretty name.”

“Thanks… Can I come up now?”

“Oh yeah!” The foot moved away and Beau swung herself up over the railing like a cat. The woman looked her over and Beau tried not to flex when her gaze paused momentarily on her bare arms. “So,” she started, grinning when she finally met Beau’s eyes. “You know the Traveler? Are you a follower of him too?”

“I- No. He threw a fucking tomato at me and I chased him here.”

She giggled and Beau felt her face start to feel hot. “That sounds like him.”

“Who the hell is he?  _ What  _ the hell is he, he knew things about me, he said things that I’ve never told anyone. What does he want with me?”

She shrugged. “He’s a God. I don’t know what he wants but he never does anything without a reason.” She gasped, delighted. “He must have wanted us to meet! He must have a plan for us!”

“What could he possibly want with me, I’m not a religion kinda girl.”

The woman hummed thoughtfully. “How do you feel about dicks?”

“Ambivalent.”

“What about practical jokes? Have you ever drawn on someone’s face when they were asleep?”

“Can’t say that I have. Usually when I’m funny it’s on accident.”

The woman frowned. “You’re not really his type.”

“Hey, he’s not exactly my cup of tea either.”

“I meant his type of follower. He likes people like me, pranksters. Troublemakers.”

“Oh, well I’m definitely that second one.” Got kicked out for it. Twice.

She started looking around the balcony like she was trying to find something. “Traveler? It’s Jester! I’m here with Beauregard! Tell us your divine plan!” Beau resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the woman’s dramatics, she seemed to be having fun with it at least. Beau had never seen someone have fun with religion before. “Give us a sign!”

A bird flew over their heads and there was a streak of white through the air. The bird shit landed on the stone right between the two women. Beau sneered. “That the kind of sign you get a lot? Your God a patron of birds or a patron of shit?”

Jester giggled and shook her head, looking carefully at the poop. “No, no, no, he’s a trickster god. His signs aren’t always the kind of things you’d expect. He likes to have fun with it.” She concentrated on the poop for a long moment, her eyebrows furrowed and her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth. “Hmmm. It looks kinda like a heart. See, see, look!”

Beau sighed but leaned over to look at the poop. “It just looks like shit to me.” There was a bird’s call and suddenly there was something wet on the back of her neck. Beau sneered and reached back to touch it, pulling her fingers away to find white bird shit on her fingers. “For fuck’s sake! Traveler, if that was you, you get your fucking ass down here right now so I can kick it!”

Jester started to laugh, holding her stomach but they both froze when there was the sound of movement coming from inside, heard clearly through the open window.

“Jester?” called a woman’s voice. “Jester, are you still awake?”

Jester’s eyes widened. “Momma,” she whispered. She grabbed Beau by the arm and started pushing her towards the edge of the balcony. “Get down, get down. No one is allowed to be here, no one is allowed to know about me.”

Beau frowned but started climbing over the railing. “No one’s supposed to know about you? What do you mean? Are you a prisoner?”

“No, no, no, it’s just dangerous for me in the city. My momma is a real important person, if people knew I was her daughter they might… well, I don’t really know what they would do, people don’t usually give me examples, they just say ‘It’s dangerous out in the city, Jester, poo poo poo’, you know?”

Beau started to lower herself to start climbing down the wall but she paused and pushed herself back up, gently taking Jester’s elbow when she started to turn away. “Wait. Can I… Can I come back? Can I see you again?”

Jester looked shocked but it faded quickly into a gentle smile. “I would like that, Beauregard. And we still have to find out what the Traveler wants with you and all.”

Beau cleared her throat. “Beau. You can call me Beau.”

Jester giggled and nodded. “Okay, Beau. I’ll see you soon I hope.”

Beau couldn’t suppress the smile that pressed passed her usual sour frown. “Yeah. Soon.” She let go of the railing and started falling down the ground. She landed light on her feet and rolled to catch herself, glancing back up at the balcony when she was back on her feet.

Jester made a noise of surprise and looked over the railing, smiling when she saw that Beau was alright and then waving down at her. The door behind her opened and she looked back. Beau pressed herself up against the wall to keep from behind seen. “Momma!” she said.

“Jester, what are you doing out here so late, Love?”

“Just watching the boats. They’re going out to explore the whole world! Isn’t it amazing?”

“Yes, Darling, but it’s freezing, you’ll catch your death. Come inside and we can watch them through the window.”

Beau heard their voices fade as the door to the balcony was shut behind them. She took a deep breath in through her nose and let it back out. “Traveler,” she whispered reluctantly. “I don’t know if you’re fucking listening but you went through all this trouble so I figure you waited around to see how it all ended up. I get it. I know why you lured me here. But if you ever throw anything at me or make a bird shit on me ever again I swear to fuck that I will figure out how to kill a god.”

The wind that whistled passed her ear sounded eerily like laughter.


End file.
